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My energy solution is to turn everything off when you leave a room. Sounds simple, but it can make a huge difference! Paired with efficient lighting, you can save a lot of energy.

We bought a programmable thermostat and upgraded a few appliances to energy star rated ones. Cut our bill by almost a third.

I always remember the advice of my father as he tweak the thermostat lower in the house in heating the home. He say to us kids, “Put on more clothes!”
Great advice is timeless!

During the cooler months, leave the oven OPEN after cooking. It's free heat that smells great! unless your food stinks! in that case, it's still free :)

We do a combo of those others posted here, EE Devices, compact fluorescent or LED bulbs, turn off all unnecessary items when leaving rooms, keeping thermostat at a minimum, plus I added x10 modules to several parts of the house to automate turning off things. They are fairly cheap, and while still consume a little power all the time, still much less than leaving a power strip worth of devices running all day.

I use smaller wattage directed lighting for winter (longer dark hours) reading instead of overhead floods or chandeliers. I don't need all that coverage. And in the summer I use window ambient light as long as possible.

I've installed 7 Philips LED bulbs so far (2 Par20 and 5 Par30) and really like the light quality of all of them. I installed a dimmer for two of the Par30 bulbs and was a little disappointed with the range of dimming available. With the dimmer set to full dim the bulbs still output maybe half of their maximum brightness. I guess I was expecting a full range from no light to full brightness. Not sure if this is a limitation of LED lights or the dimmer I used (a Lutron CFL/LED dimmer), or both.

You know the problem I have with those LED technologies? They never respect the shape and "volume" of the original bulb they try to replace. The LED bulbs are always a bit bigger or longer and thus they never fit anything I own. As soon as you dont use the good old 60W incadescent bulb with something that has a lot of room for it, you're screwed. Don't get me wrong, I try every year to find a LED bulb to replace the incadescent ones that always burn but to no avail. I just wish they would build those LED bulb so they fit what they are trying to replace, kinda important...

cool

"religion is like a prison for the seekers of wisdom"

-Killah Priest

Set the water heater at 120 F.
I don't have lights that stay on for long hours, so CFL is no help to me. I am looking foreward to the LED bulbs coming down in price, and then I believe most people will get on board.

After washing dishes, drying clothing and baking, leave doors of machines open; let sunshine come in whenever possible.

I put inexpensive motion detectors on hall lights and timers on bathroom lights. These light always seem to get left on for long periods on time, so it is particularly effective to make sure they end up off when not in use. LED bulbs are great for these applications because CFLs die prematurely power cycled frequently.

I have a timer on my water heater. It is turned on only at night. This reduces consumption and uses more nuclear electricity.

Well that sounds all well and good but the whole "cuts your electric bill" pitch wont really stick as long as LED bulbs are still $25 a pop....

I have begun replacing all track lighting with LED and I plug my flatscreen into my cable box to keep it from drawing power while in power off position.....it uses instant-on sleeper mode power otherwise. On another set I have installed a remote power switch to do the same thing....My bill average for 1500 sf brick home year-round has decreased to $66/mo.
I had to go to web for some bulb sizes at a reasonable price......They are becoming more available in the last few months but still quite high ...Make sure you know what kind of light you want... 3 types...2 shades of white to yellow. 3+ watts seem to do best unless it is minimal hallway lighting or accent needing a dimmer wattage.

jt

Added a motion sensor to the front door light. When you come home with groceries, or the dogs, you can see what you are doing without leaving the light on 24/7 (like the neighbors do!)

PS

I use (local) Gulf Power Good Sense program which controls the thermostat up and down for variable rate power pricing...(high price demand to lowest price off demand) It also allows me to wait till the rates decrease daily to do dishwasher and laundry. I also dry many items of clothing on rack in spare bedroom.....Clothes line outside on fair weather days.....Smell great and don't wear out the clothes. In addition, you can't believe how warn you can be at thermostat set @ a kool 68 degrees and sitting on an electric throw...cosy and comfy with a laptop on your lap is JUST Right....(-;

Hope it helps;

I spent a lot of money on CFL lamps when they first came out. My electric provider charges about 18 c/kwh. In the almost 20 years I have used the CFL's only a few have gone bad. They have returned my initial investment both in direct electric savings and indirect air conditioning savings. I would like to use the next wave of lighting. They may be the last bulb I'd ever need to change. And I don't change them very often now. I have better things to do.

My next improvement is going to be a geothermal heat pump with a slight twist. An inventor suggested a solution in a science magazine that would work quite well for me and keep my installation costs way lower than a conventional install.

I have looked at many ways to save and or create electricity but the best quote was from a guy that tried to make a wind generator. He said it is much easier to use less energy than it is to create it.

While living in New Zealand I learned from frugal Kiwi's to heat only those parts of the house which suported family daytime activities...the living room and kitchen, for example. Other areas of the house like the bedrooms or bathrooms were left unheated or at least set to lower room temperatures. Key to this was remembering to close doors and in some cases installing a heavy hall way curtain.

Timers are used on our light switches or fan controls. Motion detector switches are used to turn on the areas that are used. A dc motor on the furnace was installed to reduce energy usage. CFL bulbs and halogen bulbs are used throughout the living area. Power bars to tv sets and computers are turned off wehn not in use to reduce idle power consumption.

We use programmable thermostats, CFL bulbs, and a solar hot water heater. We also turn off unused lights and electronics.

My solution was to build a house using insulated concrete forms and then spray open cell foam insulation in the attic. Next I put on a white metal roof to reflect the heat of the sun. Ninety percent of the windows are on the eastern and southern sides of the house. The exterior is also white with sage trim. From there I installed a 2+ kW photovoltaic and a closed loop solar hot water system. I have two florescent (6 tubes total) fixtures, three LED fixtures, one in the California closet, one under the kitchen cabinets and one spot over the LR reading chair. All the rest are compact florescent lights. I have a timer on the eight light fixture in the bathroom. MY heating and cooling is provided by a 16 SEER split mini system heat pump with a variable speed fan and a programmable thermostat. I change the air filter once a month. All the windows are Low E, with a 1' eave overhang to block the hot summer sun and allow as much of the winter sun as possible. That is what I do and it works. I would like to try replacing some compact florescent bulbs with LED bulbs.

I had an old surge protector that had a power switch for each device, it was once used for my desktop computer. This has now been repurposed for the power chargers for cell phones, cameras, and other devices so you just turn on the power to recharge the device you want.

This mat not be an energy saving tip but it is a good reason to switch to LED lighting none the less.
I have a two story home with high pitch roof that has pot lighting.
Needless to say ......whenever one of the typical florescent or incandescent bulbs burn out ..Which is far too often.....I am put in a dangerous position or expensive position to change the bulb.
I switched to LED bulbs last year and have yet to put on my climbing gear or give away my wallet since..... Sure there is a price to pay up front but we must look to future to and realize the savings......Sure they will come down in price in years to come but for safety and convenience some applications are most definitely worth doing now...!!!! I have almost switched our entire home to the Phillips LED lighting and am more than happy with the performance and savings....

Thank-you for taking time out of your life to read my post.....

I'd love LEDs but they are a little out of my price range still. I may however buy a couple R16 LED lights for a down stairs bedroom because the CFLs I have in that room right now take 20 minutes to warm up to full brightness. I swear, GE CFLs are the crappiest ones out there. I've had several that didn't work right out of the box and another that died after the electronics crapped out. I found Home Depot's cheapo Eco Smart CFLs work great. Almost no warm up time and very bright. During the warmer months, my light bill $39 and I don't supplement with solar (its going to down more next year because our power company is dropping rates 6%). We don't leave lights on that aren't needed and try to turn off the TV when possible. I don't have a programable thermostat, but usually leave it 60. What I wish they did have however is a programable aquastat for my boiler mate (35-40 gallon hot water storage tank off the furnace). That would cut down on my oil bill quite a bit more than a programmable thermostat would. Right now the aquastat I have is set to 115, but it has an adjustable tolerance setting. I have it set to a 10 degree tolerance so it heats the water to 125 but won't reheat it until the temp drops down to 105. I can't wait until aerogel is cheap enough to use as a house insulation.

Science always asks "can we," but doesn't seem to ask "should we."